FA tube map looks familiar

The Football Association and London Underground have teamed up to create a reworked Tube map to celebrate their joint 150th anniversaries.

All 367 Tube, Docklands Light Railway and Overground stations have been named after footballers and officials.

Each of the 14 lines also holds a special significance – the Northern Line, for instance, represents famous goalkeepers, while the Central Line features prolific goalscorers.

It’s a clever piece of work, worthy of praise, although I’d have been more impressed if it hadn’t borne a stunning resemblance to this map published last week by the Press Association.

The PA’s MatchStory team have used their historical player database to create an infographic of the careers of many of London’s most famous footballers and the clubs they represented.

What sets this map apart from the FA’s version is that rather than simply list players on a line, the MatchStory team created a Tube line for each team, filled each station with a footballer who had played for that team and most impressively of all, represented those stations that connect two or more lines with players who had played for those particular clubs.

For instance, Clive Allen, the only footballer to have represented six London clubs, sits at Kings Cross St. Pancras, the only station serving six lines.

It really is an impressive piece of design.